The title of this blog is taken from the 13th Chapter of Corinthians, what many of us know as the “love chapter”.  After Paul talks about all the characteristics of love (kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude), he goes on in verse 8 to say, “Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.”

Although we often use this chapter at weddings, that is not at all the sort of love Paul is talking about! And while we may wish that romantic love were endless, and we might strive to make it so, many of us have found this not to be the case. Many of us have sadly found that the “twelfth of never” has come and gone. (You might have to be my age to get the reference – it is from a 60’s song.) Honestly, I have known a few couples who have this sort of love; they work at it; they communicate. But this chapter is about much more than our relationship to a romantic love; it is about the way we live as Christians in the world. If we are truly Christian, then we feel the love of Christ in our hearts, and that love overflows to those we meet. Unless all that we do is powered by that sort of love, we are just making noise in the marching band.

And now, when it seems that the world has gone spinning out of control, when even people who claim the name of Christ advocate hate, exclusion, greed, and fear – and this feels like betrayal to me – when arrogance, boasting, and rudeness seem to have won – even now  love does not end. In fact, love may be the only thing we have left. But love is powerful – it is the greatest of the three – faith, hope, and love. Let us, in troubled days, lean into love. Let us pray, and love, and hope.